PREGAME: The Tigers look to win a series, something they haven’t done since Minnesota. And really, a split against Tampa wouldn’t feel very satisfying anyways – especially given that the Tigers are now tied for the Wild Card with the Mariners.

It should be a great pitching match-up with Scott Kazmir taking on Jeremy Bonderman. However Bonderman hasn’t been good for awhile. Kazmir on the other hand has been lights out with 5 straight quality starts in which he’s posted a 1.38 ERA and 38 K’s against the likes of the Red Sox, Yankees, and Angels. Over that span he’s allowed 4 doubles, the only 4 extra base hits he’s allowed.

Game Time 1:05

BR Game Preview

POSTGAME: Being at work I was listening to this game early on. I heard Bonderman searching for the plate for 31 pitches in the first inning, and I heard Kazmir retire the first 6 Tigers on all of 18 pitches. But 3 innings later the pitch counts had evened out. Bonderman went through the next 3 innings on 30 pitches while Kazmir started going to 3 ball counts and had trouble finishing hitters off. The Tigers had just squandered a great scoring opportunity when Guillen and Ordonez each fanned, on a combined 15 pitches. I was a little disappointed, but I left for my meeting thinking that this game could go either way…

And then I come back and find out it’s a blow out. Much like the night before, the starter struggled in the first, only to settle down. And when the offense failed to cash in on a scoring opportunity, said pitcher came out and got knocked around.

I don’t know what is wrong with Bonderman. I didn’t see him today so I don’t know what was the problem but it sounded like he had zero control of any of his pitches. I don’t know if it is his elbow that is hurting his control and making his slider not as sharp. Or if there is a mechanical issue at work. But this is as bad as I can remember him for an extended stretch.

I’m not frustrated with the offense this time. Kazmir is a tough pitcher and I’m perfectly willing to “tip my hat” to someone of his caliber. This wasn’t another Gavin Floyd performance. That said, the Tigers didn’t take advantage of the opportunity they mustered. But with the starting pitching once again struggling, it’s not as if scratching across 2-3 runs would have helped.

I really expected Bonderman to do something good today. But without Bonderman even being mildly effective, the Tigers just won’t have the starting pitching to get keep them in the post season hunt. His struggles, and his failure to correct have me as worried about this team as I have been at any point this season.

PREGAME: I’ll be heading down to tonight’s game. I actually picked out these tickets prior to the season because tonight is the 25th anniversary of my very first Tigers game. I don’t remember many details about the game, but I do remember that it was a twi-night doubleheader against the Blue Jays and that Kirk Gibson was on the DL with a broken wrist. I remember Gibson not playing because he was sitting in the stands a few rows in front of me. That information was enough for me to id the game on retrosheet.

As for tonight’s game it will be Chad Durbin returning to the rotation. He’ll be taking on James Shields who has been quite good for most of the year and shut down the Tigers in May. However, he has struggled in his last 5 starts posting a 7.39 ERA with batters hitting 322/385/559 against him.

Game Time 7:05

TBD @ DET, Wednesday, August 8, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: You know that first doubleheader I went to the Tigers allowed 7 runs in both games. Maybe there is something there.

• I’m a little frustrated with the Tigers offense. When they put runners at first and second with nobody out and a chance to tie the game, or at least get it to one run and ended up going down on 3 straight K’s pretty much sealed the game right there.
• But at the same time Shields is a decent pitcher, and if POlanco strikes out twice in one night, I have to believe the pitcher deserves a little credit.
• And I know the game was out of hand in the 8th, but 4 K’s in 2 innings against that bullpen isn’t acceptable.
• I thought the boos for Grilli were excessive. I’m not saying he’s good, but what was the point when he entered the game tonight. I guess it’s everyone’s right to do what they want, I just don’t get it.
• I agree completely with Mike R’s comment that the bullpen is misconfigured with 3 LOOGYs. McBride was getting rocked in his 2nd inning, but circumstances that necessitate him throwing 31 pitches need to be avoided.
• The top 5 hitters in the Rays order are actually doing quite well this year, so production from the top of their order doesn’t bother me. Zorbrist and Navarro combining to reach base 5 times tonight though just can’t happen.
• On a lighter note, with it being 70’s night they doctored the photos that are displayed of the players while at-bat. These were quite amusing, and I hope to post a couple in the next couple days. But let me just say that Pudge with a full head of wavy black hair is the spitting image of Erik Estrada.

PREGAME: Whatever you did last night, do the same thing tonight. The Tigers aren’t nearly as superstitious and have juggled the lineup. Guillen is back at shortstop, Craig Monroe is back in left field, and Pudge Rodriguez returns behind the plate. But fear not Ryan Raburn fans, he’s playing 2nd tonight so Placido Polanco can DH.

Also different will be the starting pitcher. The Tigers go with Nate Robertson. Robertson turned in a quality start last time out against Oakland, but took the loss as the offense did not much.

He’ll be opposed by Jason Hammel making just his 4th start of the season after toiling in the bullpen. Hammell has been tough on lefties allowing just a 212/349/346 line. He has 24 K’s in 30 innings which is solid, but 19 walks to go along with it.

Game Time 7:05pm

TBD @ DET, Tuesday, August 7, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: On to the good stuff in a minute. But first, Dave Dombrowski needs to cut Jason Grilli right now. No discussions with Jim Leyland who has a huge blind spot towards the ineptitude of Jason Grilli. Grilli is what he is, a mop-up guy at best. A really nice guy, great with the kids, but that doesn’t qualify him to pitch in tight games.

Removing Nate Robertson was a questionable decision at best and it was Leyland out thinking himself. And what I don’t understand, is if Leyland didn’t think Nate Robertson could get out of a 2 out, runner on first jam on a night when he had 9 K’s and 0 BB’s, why did he think that Jason Grilli would be able to get out of a bases loaded jam? Much like the Jones-Cleveland-debacle Leyland made several mistakes. It was a mistake taking Robertson out. It was a mistake brining Grilli in. And it was a mistake leaving him in to tie the game.

Part of this is the culmination of the Rogers and Miller injuries because Chad Durbin wasn’t available in that situation due to starting tomorrow. And that left Zach Miner and Todd Jones as the only other available right handers. Which is why a move needs to be made.

Now for the good stuff:

• The offense was drilling the ball all over the place, and pretty much everyone took place at some point except for Craig Monroe.
• Great baserunning tonight with Ryan Raburn getting home on a contact play and Curtis Granderson going first to third on a blooper, and even Sean Casey beating out a double.
• But Curtis Granderson was caught stealing for the first time this year. Kind of a bummer and it looked like he didn’t get a solid first step.
• Nate Robertson was awesome. He spared the bullpen which could be helpful with Chad Durbin taking the mound tomorrow. Not that Durbin isn’t up to the task, but he’s probably going to be limited at around 75-85 pitches.
• Curtis Granderson made a rare mistake in centerfield when he completely lost a fly ball and it led to a run. It happens, and it rarely happens to Granderson. But he made up for it with an excellent diving catch in the 9th.
• Another nice effort for Todd Jones allowing only a ground ball single.
• The Tigers took advantage of the pitching match-ups that clearly tilted in their favor in these first 2 games. Facing James Shields and Scott Kazimir will definitely be a challenge the next 2 games.

PREGAME: The Rays have lost 11 of their last 15 and the Tigers have lost 13 of their last 17. The Rays send out Edwin Jackson who is a good bet to go 6 innings. He’s pitched exaxtly 6 innings in 5 of his last 7 starts, but with mixed results. His last time out he allowed just 1 unearned run on 5 hits, 1 walk, and 5 K’s. Three starts ago he shut out the Yankees for 6 innings, so he can be good.

Justin Verlander battled the Oakland lineup his last time out, not pitching bad, but racking up 106 pitches in 5 1/3 innings.

As for lineup notes, Pudge is having an ankle issue and will miss tonight’s game. Sean Casey moves back to first and bats 3rd while Carlos Guillen takes DH duties. Ryan Raburn is your left fielder tonight.

Listening to Danny Knobler on WDFN tonight, Marcus Thames will start a rehab assignment tomorrow for Toledo and could be back as soon as Thursday’s game.

Game Time 7:05

TBD @ DET, Monday, August 6, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Hey, a win. Yes it’s against the Devil Rays, but for a team that has been struggling against everyone I don’t care who the opponent is.

• Justin Verlander had a long first inning as he struggled with his control, even hitting a batter with an 0-2 count. He did settle in until 4 straight hits cost him a chance at the win. He did stick around long enough to get through 6 innings. He wasn’t great tonight but good enough.
• The bullpen came through with 3 innings only allowing one baserunner. Fernando Rodney and Todd Jones retired the 6 they faced with ease. Of course I was nervous with Jones pitching to Rabelo since the two haven’t always been on the same page.
• For the last week Placido Polanco was the only hot player on offense and ironically he posted an 0 for 4 on a night when the team notched 13 hits.
• Ordonez and Guillen were the offensive stars and packed quite a punch in the 4-5 spots. Rayburn and Rabelo came through in the 7th, but both had numerous opportunities early on.
• Speaking of Rodney, Leyland just mentioned that he would be off tomorrow after pitching 2 straight days. Regardless, the strut after the 96mph fastball punch out was nice to see.
• The Tigers didn’t seemed to be fooled by Edwin Jackson, but they couldn’t push many across the plate either.
• And congrats to Sean Casey who knocked his first Comerica Park homer of the year, and a timely one at that.

It’s one game, but a win streak has to start somewhere. Let’s hope they can build on it.

PREGAME: I’ll be listening to this one as I jouney back from Indianapolis. It’s Jordan Tata and Gavin Floyd for whatever that’s worth.

One depressing stat to throw at you. So far in this young month Tigers pitchers have pitched to exactly 8 batters while the team has had the lead. Not innings mind you, plate appearances.

Game Time 1:05

BR Game Preview

POST SERIES: I was in Indianapolis this weekend, and so on Friday I only heard chunks of the game (mlb.tv was no help because Indy is in the White Sox black out region). Saturday I saw 90% of the game. Today I heard it all on the radio. So take these comments with those parameters in mind. I also just got done catching up on the comments for all 3 games and I’ll respond to some themes there as well.

• I’m not sure that Leyland yelling at the players will help. I also don’t think that any of us are qualified to judge the intensity or effort that players are playing with. Teams look more alive when they are hitting well, or pitching well, or doing something well. A lack of execution can easily be confused as a lack of effort. And just because all of our attitudes are bad because of the losing, assuming that players are thinking the same way is quite a leap. Maybe these guys aren’t playing hard, but I know that I’m not in a position to say one way or the other. And as for the game on Saturday, I saw guys battling through at-bats and working each count. I also saw guys hustling, in essence I saw nothing out of the ordinary.
• And to the comments that “if they keep playing like this they’ll miss the playoffs” I think that’s kind of a given. If you’re out hit and out pitched the rest of the way you’re going to lose a lot.
• There has been lamenting about the lack of clutch hitting, but I thought the Tigers did a decent job of that on Saturday night. And just going off the radio broadcast it seemed like they were hitting balls hard, but either at people or the Sox were making some fine defensive plays. Today was a different story with no hard hit balls (again according to the radio) and thus very few clutch opportunities.
• And that’s really all I’ve got. Another bummer of a series. Tampa’s coming into town, but at this point does it matter? I’d almost rather see a contender just to see how the team would respond.

PREGAME: Still looking for that magic to return, the Tigers turn to Jeremy Bonderman who is coming off the worst start of his career. He’ll do battle against Javier Vasquez. The two hooked up in the front end of the doubleheader last go round with Vasquez getting the better of Bonderman.

Game Time 7:05

BTW: I know we’re all frustrated by the recent play. This is clearly evident in the comments. I don’t have a lot of commenting rules, and one of them is no swearing. The filters pick up the biggies, but there are a lot of other instances of swearing without swearing, like f’d up for instance. Or dropping an asterisk into a word to keep it from being a pure swear word. Please refrain from this as I will start deleting these comments from now on.

PREGAME: The boys are back in town, and this time it’s an actual homestand instead of just another stop on the Tigers July North American tour.

They welcome in the White Sox and Mark Buehrle. The Tigers beat up Buehrle to the tune of 14 hits in 6 1/3 innings, but he bounced back and threw 8 shut out innings against the Blue Jays.

The Tigers send out Andrew Miller who will be looking for that illusive 6th inning out. If he records one it will be his first since July 6th.

Game Time 7:05

PREGAME: The ridiculously long, and very disappointing, road trip finally comes to an end. The Tigers will also get their first day off tomorrow since July 16th. Unfortunately it won’t be their last trip to the West Coast because they have 3 more against Oakland at the end of August.

Today it will be Nate Robertson, who gutted out 6 innings his last time out, but submarined the Tigers chances of victory with 8 runs allowed in just 2 innings.

He’ll take on Dallas Braden who was shelled in his last start to the tune of 7 runs (3 were unearned) in 4 innings.

Game Time 3:35

POSTGAME: Another day another loss. This time Nate Robertson did his job and turned in a quality start. He lasted through 6 innings because the A’s got jumpy with 14 batters swinging at the first pitch. But save for a rough 3rd inning and a huge Mark Ellis blast he had an easy go of it.

Of course he left things in a precarious state for Chad Durbin. Durbin did a fine job coming in with a 2nd and 3rd nobody out situation and keeping the ball in the infield as no one crossed the plate. Of course Bobby Seay nearly undid his good work by walking 2 and plunking a batter before Jason Grilli picked up the last out.

The offense had their chances with 12 baserunners but only managed to plate 2 runs. Some of it was poor execution and some was just unfortunate. Kind of like the whole roadtrip in a nutshell.

PREGAME: Tonight looks to be a primo pitching match-up with Justin Verlander taking on Dan Haren.

Verlander allowed only 3 hits and 3 walks in his last start and managed 7 innings.

Haren has a case for the Cy Young award this year. He’s made 4 straight quality starts. The Tigers faced him last year and knocked him around for 7 runs in just 6 innings.

Monroe stays in the lineup tonight, and Mike Rabelo fills in for Pudge Rodriguez who dropped his appeal and will serve his suspension tonight.

Game Time 10:05
DET @ OAK, Tuesday, July 31, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: And another clunker. Macay McBride was awful. Jason Grilli was bad. The defense made 2 errors. The offense failed to score after the 2nd inning. Verlander had no control and couldn’t make it out of the 6th inning. A total team effort.

Congrats to Placido Polanco on setting the record for errorless chances. If he can go 10 more games he’ll break Luis Castillo’s record for errorless games as well.

Toledo 10 Richmond 3
Dane Sardhina enjoyed himself with 3 homers, a walk, and 7 RBI. Erick Almonte also homered as part of a 2 for 4, 1 walk night. Ron Chiavacci allowed 2 runs on 2 walk, 6 hits and 8 K’s in 6 innings.

Erie DNP

Clearwater 2 Lakeland 7
Ovandy Suero hit his first homer and added a single. Danny Worth doubled twice and walked. Angel Castro went 4 2/3 innings and allowed 2 unearned runs on 2 hits and a walk.

Clearwater 7 Lakeland 5
Cameron Maybin returned to Lakeland and had 2 doubles and a triple and had flyballs in all 4 at bats. Deik Scram tripled and singled twice. Danny Worth had a 2 hit night. Lucas French allowed 6 runs, 3 earned, on 4 hits and 4 walks in 4 1/3 innings.

Peoria 3 West Michigan 2
Brennan Boesch had 2 hits, as did Brandon Timm. Audy Ciriaco went 3 for 4. Lauren Gagnier allowed 2 runs on 6 hits, a walk, and 5 K’s in 6 innings.

Oneonta 2 Staten Island 3
There were only 4 singles for the O-Tigs. Mark Brackman went 5 2/3 innings and allowed 1 run on 4 hits, 3 walks, and 4 K’s.

GCL Tigers 1 GCL Indians 6
Craig Maddox had the only Tigers hit. Emmanuel Miguelez allowed 5 runs on 9 hits in 4 innings. This one ended early due to rain.

Minors News

For those who were curious about the early exits of Tigers’ Top 10 prospects Gorkys Hernandez and Mike Hollimon yesterday, they weren’t pulled due to injury or a pending trade. Hollimon was lifted so that Nick McIntyre, who hadn’t played for 5 days, could get some action ahead of today’s off day. In the case of Hernandez he was yanked for not running out a ground ball.

PREGAME: I wish I could exercise some game post mo-jo, but I’m at a loss. I’ve tried long posts and short posts. I’ve tried 3 different hats and 2 different pieces of furniture to watch the game on. Nothing is working. Mrs. Billfer asked during last night’s debacle if the Tigers had any easy games coming up. I explained that the Royals and White Sox were last place teams and the Angels had lost 7 of their last 10. Right now I don’t think any game is easy for the Tigers.

Maybe Jordan Tata can be the elixir. He’ll make his first career start tonight instead of Kenny Rogers who is on the DL. I’m sure Kenny is disappointed to miss this game, what with his 25-4 career record pitching in Oakland. Maybe this is just the sort of unfortunate coincidence that the Tigers need.

Hopefully the Tigers can get to Joe Blanton early and often. Blanton has allowed double digit hits in his last 4 starts. Scoring off of Blanton means going station to station because he’s only allowed 11 homers in 153 innings this year. He’s also a much better pitcher at home with a 568 OPS against in Oakland and a 732 OPS against on the road.

Game Time 10:05
DET @ OAK, Monday, July 30, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Ah, a win. Delightful. Jordan Tata delivered more than I could have expected by a)not allowing much of the offense and b)doing it for 7 innings. Six easy outs later from Chad Durbin and Todd Jones and the Tigers are embarking on a new win streak. Yes, the A’s offense is no great shakes, but neither was the White Sox and that proved to be a struggle.

Tigers 5 A’s 2

PREGAME: Am I the only one that hates the Sunday night games? In any case, it’s Joe MOrgan time as the Tigers look to not get swept. They’re playing some really bad baseball.

Now the last time the Tigers were looking to avoid a sweep, they were also playing on a Sunday night and Jeremy Bonderman was also starting. The Tigers won a 1-0 nail biter against the Twins. Here’s hoping that the Tigers can turn that trick again.

To do it they’ll have to get to Dustin Moseley. Moseley’s last 2 outings have been twins, 1 run, 6 innings, 5 hits. Of course those starts were in April and he’s been in the bullpen since then. His last time out he gave up 5 runs in 2 2/3 innings of relief work.

Game time 8:05

DET @ LAA, Sunday, July 29, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com